Re: 36 hours in Berlin

dude, its still a little early so maybe that is why there are no replies, but we are not lucky enough to be the world traveler you get to be ... i've been around but never there ... take lots of pics ... and have a good time ... cr****

Re: 36 hours in Berlin

Dude, there are a lot of well-travelled people on this board, and every time I've asked for suggestions whilst travelling there have been some really good recommendations.

I don't normally travel this much, but Ryanair had a ridiculous sale, and I bought a bunch of tickets for literally 4 pence, so my girlfriend and I figured we may as well take advantage of them.

ok yes you are right stef, like cortney etc ... i have been all over the world too, but not lately so i am daft ... sorry to dis the board ... and berlin isnt really a holiday destination spot for a lot of people cr****

Re: 36 hours in Berlin

The Wall Museum is pretty good.It's got all sorts of stuff on how people escaped from East Berlin.I haven't been since The Wall came down,but I imagine it's still there.The clubs in Berlin are crazy too.I went to one during the week,and didn't leave until the next day at noon.People were on their lunch hour and we were just leaving after partying all night.

Re: 36 hours in Berlin

I liked the little history thing they have on the wall in Potsdamer Platz. I think that's maybe what breakjaw is talking about. There's still a part of the wall up and they've let graffiti artists take over little sections of it. It's called the East Side Gallery I think. I liked that too. I just walked around and saw all the big sights because I liked the architecture there. Oh Tiergarten is pretty too. Oh and my friend liked the Nazi resistance museum too.

Edit: You made me look up names. I liked Brandenburger Tor, Reichstag (just the outside, didn't go in), oh Berliner Dom is one of my favorite sights in all of Europe. Checkpoint Charlie is REALLY touristy and kinda dumb.

Re: 36 hours in Berlin

The Museum at Checkpoint Charlie may be interesting. I was tired and didn't have the attention span to read all of the signs, and a portion of the information was in German only. I felt like maybe there was a tour pamphlet I was missing. If you are interested in type of history though, I think it would be a good place to visit.

If you continue walking up Friedrichstrasse from the museum, there is a remaining guard checkpoint (which is now a tourist attraction, and you can have your passport stamped, etc). Turning left on Niederkirchnerstrasse and continuing for a couple of blocks, you would find the Topography of Terror exhibit. This is the destroyed remains of the Gestapo headquarters. The exhibit is fully in German and will probably not be of interest to you; however, behind the exhibit along the street is a block long stretch of the Berlin Wall.

Museum wise, I'd recommend Museum Island, which has several museums within the same plaza:

Pergamon Museum -- named for one of its exhibits, the Pergamon gate. It has several very large scale architectural reconstructions. The museum is pretty large and was very interesting if you like antiquities. I didn't think the Islamic art sections were very impressive.

Altes Museum - Greek and Roman collections

Agyptisches Museum - Pretty extensive collection of ancient egyptian artifact, including Nefertiti's bust for which the collection is famous.

There is also the old national gallery on Museum Island, but I did not visit it, so can't make a recommendation.

I also went ot the Berggruen Museum, which is a bit out of the way (though easy to access by public transit) and is modern art. I wouldn't recommend it on such a short visit unless you are obsessively fond of Picasso and Klee. (If you've been to Picasso museums, this does not compare).

The Natural History museum is supposed to be really good, but I didn't make it there.

The portions of Berlin that you'd visit as a tourist are packed into a small physical area, the public transit is very good, and you could cover it all given 2 day-times.

I didn't go to any of the concentration camps, and definitely would not go if I only had 36 hours. They're a bit of a trip outside of Berlin and would probably take the better part of a day.

And, pretty much everyone speaks English, so I wouldn't worry about not being able to speak German.